


Dominions and Dragons

by fencer_x



Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Splash Free, Bath Sex, Dragons, M/M, Shapeshifting, Water Gods
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-04
Updated: 2018-02-04
Packaged: 2019-03-13 12:16:58
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13570425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fencer_x/pseuds/fencer_x
Summary: HARURINTERCOURSE DAY 6 - TRANSFORMATION (nonhuman) || Rin is a minor monsoon god posing as the ruling deity of a small oceanside oasis, and Haru is the water dragon who woke from three millenia's rest to find that his inland sea had turned into a desert during his slumber. Haru now helps Rin unwind from the stresses of keeping storms and cyclones from ripping apart the fragile little home he's helped create for his people.





	Dominions and Dragons

"You'd think being a monsoon deity, I'd get off on the spring floods, but fuck if they don't drain me..."

Rin settled as low as he could in the bathwater, letting the gentle waves generated by his jerky, stilted movements lap at his chin, and sighed. The air was thick with steam, and he filled his lungs with a great breath before slowly releasing it, willing his aches and cramps away. It didn't work, of course; cuts and bruises, he could heal—he'd even learned the trick to helping his people through the plague that hit each year in the height of summer, bolstering their natural defenses through blessings while vanishing standing pools and puddles with a sweep of his arm. But this was no mortal ache—it was an _im_ mortal one, bound to his spirit and healed only with time and rest as his sorely depleted energy reserves were restored. He would have to recuperate the old-fashioned way, it seemed.

It happened every year, though. It _had_ to, or else the banks of stormclouds that swooped down from the mountains at the tail end of winter would crush his tiny little thearchy without missing a beat en route to the ocean flanking the eastern border. The spring floods were nothing compared to the great typhoons that occasionally made landfall, but those Rin could turn aside with an easy swipe, or rip to pieces with a chit called in to the southern gale. These annual floods, by contrast, had to be carefully shaped and directed, funnelled into water fresh and plentiful enough to keep their aquifers stocked through the long, baking summer months waiting ahead. Weeks of wrangling hard rain and driving torrents had thoroughly sapped Rin, and while a few straggling showers remained that would drench the far-flung countryside and transform fertile fields into boggy swamps, hardly any farmers had begun planting this early in the year, so the industry would take next to no damage if Rin bowed out now instead of a week hence. 

His people needed the floods, though—just as desperately as they needed Rin standing against the storms to ensure they weren't wiped off the map every spring. Those floods were what kept their land green and fertile, when the Seven Sands had swallowed everything westward, as far as the eye could see, under an ocean of bleached white sand centuries back. Haru claimed the Sands had once been the site of an inland sea—the Seven Shoals, he'd called it—but the desert was all that remained of the salty spray and the bones of creatures long dead after the water had burned away an age or more ago. He'd been heartbroken when he'd roused from his long slumber to find that everything he'd loved and known had vanished in the millenia he'd been asleep and had traveled through the scorching Sands to Rin's borders, boldly laying claim to the city and her lands and placing Rin at the heart of his new hoard. 

Rin had resisted—but resisting Haru was like resisting the waves. Yeah, you could stand against them for a while, but eventually they were gonna wear you down. That was how he'd justified it for a while, convinced Haru had just capitalized on a moment of weakness. He'd needed Haru, Haru's power and protection, and so did his people. He couldn't be everything for them, and Haru could, and if he simply needed to submit to Haru's whims to keep him happy, it was a small price to pay.

But by now he knew better. If Haru was the waves—then Rin was the moon, controlling Haru in ways he couldn't even wrap his head around and acting as a beacon for those lost in the night. He didn't have the raw power that true elementals commanded, but he didn't need it. He had enough power to give his people what they prayed for, and that was fine by him: a safe flood season, a bountiful harvest, and every protection he could muster against invasion and disease. It had worked out to their mutual benefit, Rin receiving his power from their fervent prayers and bone-deep belief, and returning that power to them through blessings in a cycle that imbued life and prosperity in all. 

It just hurt like a bitch sometimes.

He closed his eyes, tuning out the soft slap of bare feet over marbled tile as attendants filed in with trays of fresh-sliced fruits and candied nuts—it was too sweet for him by far, but he appreciated the offerings all the same, physical representations of the love they held for him. He was their watchful god, and so his people gave him their best: the biggest, ripest citrines from their orchards; honey-roasted almonds and pistachios by the bushel; and the fattest of each morning's catch from the bay, every day unfailingly. 

A heavier foot—sandaled, he could hear—stepped through the keyhole arch separating the bathing chamber from the dorter Rin had taken for his rooms. Rin smiled contentedly—he knew that step, clomping and unsteady, as if unaccustomed to walking about upright. " _Please_ tell me you brought back some meat for me; I'm gonna waste away if I have to choke down another meal of sardine and rice porridge..."

Haru settled on the edge of the pool, slipping off his dusty sandals to dangle his toes in the water. "One of the families along the outer edge of the eastern ring had a calving—twins."

"Good for them."

"They thought so—but one was stillborn, suffocated on its own cord." He kicked his feet, sending up splashing ripples that propagated in slow procession across the pool. "They were reluctant to present their god with an offering already dead instead of sacrificed properly, but I was most persuasive."

Rin was alert in an instant, whirling around with a wide, expectant grin to hang from the pool side. "Veal!"

Haru shrugged. "If it suits you." He tugged off the heavy shawl he wore whenever he ventured outside the temple walls, his only concession to Rin's constant reminders that he needed to take sunstroke seriously when he took on human form. "I have the kitchen staff cleaning the carcass already; dinner should be ready by evening bells."

"It better not have teethmarks in it."

Haru frowned down at him, then shifted to his feet again to deal with the lacings on his trousers—caked with mud around the ankles; so he _had_ been tromping through the farmsteads out along the eastern ring. "I was careful," was his sniffed reassurance. "Though you're welcome to go fetch your own meals next spring, if you have any complaints."

"Mm, no complaints at all," Rin leered, raking his eyes over Haru as he disrobed before catching the gaze of one of the devout lingering in the archway and giving a nod. He'd long since grown used to the constant presence of eyes all around: the long-devoted, the newly annointed, the passers-through who merely wished to catch a glimpse of their god before returning to the far-flung reaches of the lands under Rin's protection with tales that would do him far more justice than he really deserved. But there were moments, more of late than in years past, that he did not want to share with even his most faithful of followers—and he suspected Haru felt similar. Really, if Haru had his way, he'd probably be the _only_ one allowed to look upon Rin at all; dragons were, legend held and reality proved, possessive little shits.

Rin didn't so much mind, though; he liked being pampered, and Haru turned downright _mothering_ during the spring floods. He'd chide Rin for overexerting himself, reminding him that god though he might be, he was not indestructible, and one of these years the storms would tear through him like a paper door, scattering him to the winds. Rin always scoffed at his dramatics, but resolved to be more careful the next year; Haru was several-fold his elder—he'd probably seen such tragedy seven times over and wasn't keen to see it an eighth. 

Rin slid over on the bench as Haru slipped into the water beside him, his calm, stoic mask melting away to reveal an expression of pure joy. Rin might have held command over the rains—but water itself? That was Haru's dominion, and he ruled it with a relaxed ease born of long experience—and love. He'd tried to explain it once: "My bed is the sea floor, my roof the dappled surface, my family all that swims and dives and soars over my waves." He was a grand sight to see when he really let loose in the harbor, chasing schools of mackerel in a flash of black lightning, iridescent scales catching the sunlight filtering through the border between sky and sea. He looked so free, so unencumbered, and sometimes Rin couldn't wrap his mind around why he'd ever wanted to settle down here, on their little cliffside scratch of land, when he could be out there in the big blue. 

"You're all that's left," Haru had explained, earnest in his efforts to convince Rin that _he_ was the Seven Shoals incarnate, born when the waters had boiled away and fallen back to the parched ground as the first of the heavy monsoon rains. "Why should I want for anything else?"

Rin didn't know if he believed him—it seemed far-fetched, to say the least, and the notion that there'd been a time before he just _was_ when he'd been something else entirely...well, it was a little unsettling. He only smelled of the sea because there was a whole damn _ocean_ at their backs. Not because, an age ago, his essence had been transformed, given new purpose and duties to restore what little of the land he could.

But whatever the reason—nostalgia, genuine fondness, or something deeper still that kept Rin up at night—Haru was here, by his side, whether Rin liked it or not. Once he'd accepted that, he'd finally started to allow himself to _enjoy_ it, which was really convenient when the flood season rolled around.

He listed to the side, resting his head on Haru's shoulder. "Evening bells is still pretty far off though... How're we gonna while away the hours til then?"

" _We_ will be doing nothing. You've more than exhausted yourself—"

"Exhausted? C'mon, I'm right as rain; if you think I don't have it in me to get it up, then you _really_ don't know me at all."

Haru lifted up to straddle Rin, looming over him and casting their faces into shadow. It was close and quiet, and their breath seemed to echo in the empty chamber. "I have known you since time immemorial..."

Rin snorted at this, but his heart still skipped a beat. "...Romantic."

"And if you claim to be in such fine condition, then you can concentrate on _getting it up_ —and I'll take care of the rest."

"Bold words," Rin teased. "You think you can last long enough to 'take care of the rest' this time? Or are we gonna have another _incident_?"

Haru pulled back, lips twisting down into an offended frown. "I've been working on my control—quite intensely these past few weeks, even."

"Oh?" Rin's brows lifted. "Prepping for me, then?" The energy and concentration required to control the floods necessarily left Rin with little strength for anything else. Haru understood and accepted this, but no one ever really _liked_ forced celibacy. "I'm honored. The Great One of the Seven Shoals, saving himself just for me..." His grin went a little wry, and he reminded more soberly, "...You know you don't have to do that. You're stealing followers from me, I hear—they've even started burning offerings to you on the stoop. You could have any of a dozen—"

"Yes, I could. But why would I want that? When you're here..." He dipped his head down to lap at the drops of water, infused with herbs and incense, snaking down Rin's neck. "I waited three millenia to bathe in your waters again. I can surely last three weeks a year."

"Guess we'd better make sure the payoff's fantastic then, huh?" Rin arched his neck, inviting further exploration, and slipped a hand between them to trail his fingers over Haru's twitching abdominals. Haru shifted uncomfortably, expression going slack and breath coming in quicker pants the closer Rin strayed to his cock. He leaned forward to nibble along the pulsing vein in Haru's neck. "C'mon, great worm... I learned to keep corporeal centuries back. Don't tell me your tri-millenial nap's addled your brains _that_ much...?" He let his hand drop down further, delicately tracing the curves and divots around the root. "If you can't even manage to stick it in before you shift back, then I'm not sure what we're gonna do..."

"Wh..." Haru swallowed thickly, resting his forehead against Rin's shoulder and angling his hips awkwardly to try and encourage Rin to touch him. "What do...you mean...?"

"Well, it _would_ be nice to fuck you like this." He brushed a stray clump of hair back, tucking it behind Haru's ear. "Just once before I fade into memory—instead of having dragon dick up my ass every time." 

Haru straightened, pulling back with a hurt frown. "I—you know I'd never...if I could help it..." He grimaced, looking thoroughly shamed. "I know...I disappoint you, but..."

Ah shit, Rin had definitely overdone it. He slid his hands back up and over Haru's chest, bracing them along his jaw to tilt his gaze back up to meet Rin's. "C'mon, don't gimme that—you know I'm only giving you a hard time. It's just kind of hard to kiss you when you're all snout and teeth that could rip me stem to stern." He cocked his head to the side, leaning forward to brush noses. "So I guess I better get it in now, while you've still got lips..."

And before Haru could protest—as if he ever would—Rin slotted their lips together and pulled Haru close. It had been so much fun those first few months, teaching Haru to enjoy the pleasures a human form provided. Humans were so sensitive, so tactile, and their short lives encouraged them to make hay while the day was young. He often wondered if Haru had ever been with anyone before Rin. He'd never asked—had never had the courage—but given Haru's... _difficulties_ with maintaining a human form when aroused, he doubted at the very least that he'd ever had a human lover.

And given that Rin was pretty sure most humans wouldn't be able to _survive_ sleeping with a dragon, especially knowing how randy Haru could get, losing himself to raw animal instinct when he peaked, he was confident Haru never _would_ take a human lover. Which suited Rin just fine.

But for all his rough lack of restraint during loveplay, in those few blessed moments when he could retain this form...he was exceedingly gentle and giving, as if in preemptive apology for what was to come. Here again, Rin regretted his earlier words; he'd called down more than his fair share of hailstones and cyclones in the throes of passion, so who was he to tease Haru about a lack of control? Besides, it wasn't as if it didn't feel fucking _amazing_ ; maybe he really _was_ the Seven Shoals reincarnate, because it sure as hell _felt_ like Haru belonged inside of him.

Haru's lips, his tongue, everywhere he touched burned, and though Rin knew he had no fire within him, times like this made that hard to believe. He spread his legs, inviting Haru closer, and gasped sharply when their cocks brushed, nerves firing in sharp bursts. "Don't shift just yet..." he begged, shoving a hand between them to wrap long fingers around both their shafts to tug together. "Just...wanna feel this..."

Haru had his arms braced against the poolside, and his muscles trembled with effort. He cocked his head to the side, taking great inhalations. "Don't...talk to me please..."

And Rin buttoned up promptly, aware of how much concentration Haru had to be sacrificing right now to try and keep hold on this form when everything inside of him just wanted to shed this skin for something more familiar, to relax and focus only on getting off. He used his other hand to widen the channel, pumping his hips to draw his cock along Haru's and drinking down the keening, desperate little whines he released right next to Rin's ear. Dragons liked to protect, to care for others—it was just in their nature, and so rarely was Haru comfortable with giving up control and letting Rin dictate the pace and style of their loveplay. But with his concentration stretched thin and his inhibitions lowered, Rin could tease and tantalize to his heart's content.

Or at least until Haru's focus finally snapped and he shifted. 

The water slapped loudly against the tile as they writhed and arched, and Rin wondered if he could reach the tray the attendants had left from here. He had no need for the sweets they'd brought him, but the oils they made sure to keep near at hand...those, he could make excellent use of. "Think you can hang on for another minute...?"

"No," Haru muttered pathetically, want thrumming thick through his voice, and Rin smiled fondly and guided him into a soft kiss that he held for a long heartbeat. 

"Then we'll just have to keep working on your control. It may take many, many years to break you, but I am more than committed, if you are."

Haru's eyes were hooded and dark, and Rin wondered how much he was really conscious of right now, or if he'd just completely given himself over to want and need. "Can I...?"

Rin pumped his hips, legs wrapped around Haru's. "You sure as hell better..."

A visible shudder of relief rippled down Haru's spine, a cascading wave stripping away his mortal form and drawing scalloped scales in his flesh. He stretched, back arching impossibly long as his form warped and strained, and his jaw lengthened into a snout, mouth sprouting wicked teeth he proudly displayed as he panted in the thick, heavy steam of the baths. A whiplike tail thrashed, creating waves that crashed against the poolsides, and from that long throat came a rumbling of approval as Haru stretched his cramped muscles.

He was gorgeous. Rin had always thought so—even when he hadn't been terribly fond of Haru. You just couldn't tear your eyes from him, all that raw power sketched out in graceful arches and long, sinuous coils, scales racing down his sides so dark a blue they looked black and shimmered, iridescent, when the light caught them. Rin traced the shapes of the scales at his breast with his fingers, splaying his palm flat and smiling when Haru's great lungs filled with air and expanded that chest. 

"Feel better now?" 

_"Soon..."_ came the rasping brush of thought against Rin's mind, and Rin was hit with a wave of longing and need so urgent he almost popped right then. Haru's claws scrabbled over the tile as he struggled to balance his weight and avoid crushing Rin in his enthusiasm. Haru wasn't one of the giant wyrms that made their homes in the bellies of volcanoes or stalked the northernmost ice floes, but he was still substantially larger than your average human in this form, which made presenting difficult. Difficult, but not impossible—not by a long shot. 

Rin twisted around, placing his back to Haru and balancing with one knee on the bench just below the water's surface. Haru liked it best like this, and it was easier this way too. Trying to wrap his legs around Haru's bulk was an exercise in futility, and his hip joints always wound up complaining loudly afterwards, so it was rarely worth it—especially considering their difference in size meant Rin was left staring up at Haru's thick breastplates when he took Rin from the front. They'd tried, just once, switching things up—but that had gone wrong in more ways than Rin cared to remember. Dragons just didn't have the right plumbing to make it remotely pleasurable getting fucked by a human, and there was no position that really made it feasible either. Rin didn't much mind either way, though, and he'd never had the misfortune of dealing with human mores and taboos, so as long as they were having fun, he cared little how it happened.

He settled his weight on his arms, glancing over his shoulder. "Thought you were supposed to take care of me?" He reached between his legs, lazily stroking himself. "C'mon, I let you shift 'cause you said you couldn't wait, so—"

With a snuffling grunt of irritation that Rin would _swear_ sounded like a vocalized _"Shut up_ ", Haru scrambled over him, taking care to avoid raking Rin with his claws or crushing him against the poolside under his bulk. Rin jolted with a soft gasp when Haru's cock, with its delicate veining and tapered head, rubbed insistently against his thighs, bouncing in the water as Haru tried unsuccessfully to breach him. A thick, viscous lubricant oozed from tiny pores, and Rin smiled to see how Haru's body was reacting to his. That was the great thing about fucking a water dragon: bathtime loveplay felt _amazing_.

"You need a map back there...?" Rin drawled, rocking back against Haru.

 _"Help,"_ was the only response, a single note of despair and frustration that Rin couldn't help but laugh at. Haru released an angry snort, and Rin knew he'd hear grousing and pouting later, but he really couldn't be blamed. All that grace and power and age and experience, and Haru was just as helpless with an untended hard-on as any of Rin's followers. 

Reaching back and between his legs, Rin found the ribbed, studded length of Haru's cock and gave it a few apologetic tugs. Haru shifted in the water, balancing unsteadily on his rear legs as his back arched over Rin's in an uncomfortable curve. _"Hurry,"_ he instructed, and Rin could feel waves of urgency lapping at the shores of his mind—Haru didn't want to hurt him, would never if he could help it, but he wasn't built for long, drawn-out lovemaking in this body. Yet another reason Rin was eager to work on improving his self-control.

He swiped a finger over the tip, coaxing more of the lubricant to leak out, then steadily guided the head to his opening. Haru knew he couldn't just shove in, and Rin knew he couldn't dawdle and tease, so they both held their breath as Rin slowly, achingly slowly, eased back and let Haru breach him. There was some kind of numbing agent in the lubricant that lessened any pain, and once the head was through, the rest of Haru's cock slid in with a slick finality that stole Rin's voice. He took several gaping breaths, biceps trembling as he struggled to support his weight, and clenched tight around Haru to show he was ready. He wasn't, really—but Haru _was_ , and he'd tried hard, so he deserved a reward for all that effort. That, plus Rin really got off when Haru let loose, all snarling and snapping and raw emotion scraping at Rin's mind. 

He settled forward onto his chest and let his cheek rest against the cool tile. "Let loose. I can take it."

 _"Rin..._ " Haru called, thrumming with happiness and arousal, mixing in a milieu of joy and eagerness that drenched Rin to the core as he braced himself. The nasty curved claws tipping the forelegs on either side of Rin clenched, and Rin's body shuddered as Haru snapped his hips forward, back arching at an impossible angle as he struggled to drive deeper. He drew out, the ridges and nobs dotting his shaft rubbing inside and firing Rin's nerves. Rin bent his knees on Haru's downstroke, then, and bucked back to meet him head-on, and the skin on his thighs snapped painfully, sure to leave behind red marks where they'd connected. Haru didn't seem to appreciate the uninvited aid, and he shifted his weight to hold Rin down, leaving him helpless to struggle against Haru. _"Rin_..." he warned, vocabulary limited in this form to little more than monosyllabic guttural pleas.

"Yeah...yeah, but come _on_ Haru..." He clenched his ass, wriggling. "I've waited three weeks for this..." He arched his back, rubbing against Haru. "Fuck me so hard they've gotta redo the tiling again. I love the scandalized looks on the contractors' faces when I tell them how it br—"

His words were cut off as Haru thrust deep, a rumbling growl of pleasure building in his chest and vibrating through Rin. Rin blinked away stars, swallowing thickly and struggling to stay standing, before Haru had drawn out, only to slide back in again. The best thing about Haru's awkward proportions like this meant that when he slid in deep enough, his cock brushed at just the right angle over this spot inside Rin that felt like his own personal miracle. Pleasure sparked outward, wrapping tight claws around his balls and snaking around his shaft. He was trapped against the poolside, unable to reach down and take himself in hand, so his cock flopped helplessly in the water as Haru slammed into him over and over and over, churning the water into a fevered froth. He'd passed the point of speech, and his trilling cries of pleasure echoed off the walls. He was usually so quiet, so drawn and stoic and unflappable, so seeing him— _hearing_ him—come unwound like this just fired Rin's blood all the hotter.

He pumped his own hips helplessly, aching for release, for a touch, just the briefest brush of friction, but he was lost in Haru's frenzied thrusts—until, with a keening throaty bark of release, Haru froze, shuddered, and filled Rin with warm, slick seed that seeped into the murky water. Before Rin could catch his breath, Haru was nosing him out of the water and onto his back on the poolside, insistent and flurried, and Rin flopped onto his back with a wince, cock hard and red against his belly. 

Haru lumbered up, bracing himself half out of the water and half in, then arched his long neck down and darted his tongue out, where it wrapped thrice around Rin's straining shaft and began tugging. It was rough and rasping, but not painfully so, and Rin bucked his hips up to follow the warm stimulation as Haru worked him. There was an element of danger to having a dragon suck you off that should have had Rin running for the hills, but he'd learned long ago that the payoff was well worth the maiming he courted. 

_"Fuck_ —Haru, do that...faster... _"_ he crooned, writhing in place and bringing his arm up to shield his eyes. He didn't want to see anything, just wanted to live in a world of dark and touch and pleasure, and Haru's tongue tugged and tickled, tracing the gentle curves of Rin's sac and then following the great vein up to the crown, where it rasped over his slit and licked away the leaking slick. Rin could feel his peak building in his balls, coiling tight and strained and ready to pop, and he encouraged Haru with breathy, panting pleas for _faster rougher hotter_. Perhaps sensing Rin's desperation to finish himself off, Haru held fast, tongue wrapped around Rin's shaft to form a tight channel, and Rin bracing his legs to pump his hips up, angling to rub at just the right spot, just the right pace, again and again and again _againagainagain_ —

Until it all crested in a crushing wave, knocking the wind out of Rin as his release spurted forth in a hot stream. He collapsed onto his back again, limbs splayed and chest heaving with effort, and Haru rumbled something Rin didn't quite catch as he hauled himself wholly out of the water and wrapped his coils around Rin, long neck acting as a pillow for Rin to relax against.

"Maybe..." Rin huffed, still waiting for the room to stop spinning, "It's not the worst tragedy that you wind up shifting whenever you get horny..."

 _"Try..._ " Haru sounded just as exhausted as Rin felt, and in hindsight, adding new aches on top of his old ones had probably not been the best idea, but he'd earned himself some rest now, so he could afford to indulge a little.

"Yeah, we can still try. But I'm just saying." He shrugged. "If you wanted to keep doing that...I probably wouldn't complain." Haru snuffled something that sounded like a scoff, and Rin laughed, giddy with adrenaline. "Okay, yeah, I'd complain." He rolled onto his side, shifting over until he could stroke the bony scales forming a dark mosaic over Haru's forehead. Haru's lids had drooped low, sliding down to cover his piercing blue eyes, and Rin could hear a throaty, contented purr bubbling up inside. "But you'd know I'm full of shit and win me over anyway."

They had all the time in the world to enjoy each other, so why rush? Some things, Rin had learned, were well worth the wait.

**Author's Note:**

> Just for fun: _Nanase_ (七瀬) literally means 'Seven Shoals', so there!


End file.
